Dazzling Daly the star for Saracens

By ADAM HATHAWAY

Saracens ……….51pts

Tries: Lozowski 14, Earl 22, Malins 30, Van Zyl 38, Daly 60, McFarland 68, Maitland 79

Conversions: Farrell 15, 31, 61, 68, Daly 80

Penalties: Farrell 12, 65

Leicester ……….18pts

Tries: Cronin 20, Steward 50

Conversions: Burns 21

Penalties: Burns 6, 10

ELLIOT Daly showed Eddie Jones he is still around with a masterclass from full-back as seven-try Saracens rapped out an ominous warning to the rest of the Premiership.

Daly was lively throughout, shrugging off the disappointment of missing England's summer, scoring one try, having a hand in three more and landing a touch-line conversion at the death when Owen Farrell was off the pitch.

In a repeat of June's Premiership final, Saracens ripped up last season's playbook and hit Leicester with everything. Farrell was the pivot, Max Malins on the wing was at Tigers from the word go and Alex Lozowski was muscular in midfield.

Up front Saracens made a mess of the Leicester attacking lineout and had the best forward on the pitch in Theo McFarland.

Leicester were never ahead after the 24th minute and their day went from bad to worse when their star summer signing Handre Pollard, the World Cup winning Springbok fly-half, limped off 22 minutes into his debut after coming on at half-time.

Try time: Theo McFarland scores for Saracens

But this was the Daly show, ably supported by Farrell, Malins and the outstanding former Samoan basketball international McFarland.

Daly's latest snub from Jones came when he was left out of the training squad that meets up in London today but much more of this and he will be on the England's head coach's World Cup radar again.

“Elliot had a great game, he was outstanding on the ball,” said Mark McCall, Saracens' Director of Rugby. “He was involved in everything that we did well from an attacking point of view. Not going on tour and not being selected in the 45- man squad is not easy for someone like him. You saw his response and reaction today and he hasn't given up hope of going to the World Cup. His ability to play 15, 13 and 11 probably gives him a very good chance of going if he continues to play like that.”

The only blight on Saracens day was Jamie George being replaced at half-time and returning to watch the second half with a moon boot on.

Saracens had narrow wins in their first two games of the season against Harlequins and Gloucester where their new-styled attacking game had failed to stick.

The first 40 here was as good as they have been with ball in hand for years with Farrell running the show with his passing variety, Malins and Daly rampant in the back three and scrum-half Ivan van Zyla making things tick.

Freddie Burns gave Tigers a 6-0 lead but that was soon wiped out by Lozowski's opener when he tracked Van Zyl's run onto Daly's pass and romped over. Leicester did get back in front when prop James Cronin made the most of a defensive lapse by Billy Vunipola under a chip through from Burns but Saracens led 27-13 at the break and had the bonus point wrapped up.

Final score: Sean Maitland breaks clear to score for Saracens in the closing minutes

PICTURES: Getty Images

Freddie Steward scored from the wing, switched there so Burns could go to 15 to accommodate Pollard, but Saracens had too much. Daly got the fifth, McFarland bulldozed over to cap a superb afternoon and Sean Maitland finished it off by picking up a loose ball for a 50m run-in.